PORT ROYAL, Pa. — A restart with just nine laps remaining would see the winning move made by the race track’s second winningest driver, Lance Dewease, on Anthony Macri to take the win in the seventh annual Greg Hodnett Classic at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday.
Dewease started on the pole of the 30 lap A-main event on Saturday night alongside Austin Bishop.
Dewease would take the early lead before a red flag would come out with 23 laps remaining for multiple stopped cars on the front straightaway.
At this point in the feature event, Anthony Macri, who started inside of the second row, had worked his way up to the second spot. He had been following Dewease closely around the race track but was unable to make the pass up to that point.
On the restart, Macri would again follow Dewease around the racetrack over the next seven laps and would track him down with 17 laps remaining.
The two top drivers would trade position throughout the corners with Macri officially taking the lead on the backstretch with 16 laps remaining.
For a driver like Macri, it would be easy to think that he would run away with the rest of the race, but a restart with 9 laps remaining allowed Lance Dewease to stick right with the driver of the 39m to make a move for the win.
With 9 laps to go, Mark Smith would slow to a stop drawing the caution flag and setting up the exciting move for the win.
Lance Dewease would stay right with Anthony Macri as they came to the green flag on the frontstretch and he would perform a sliding pass on Macri to take the lead away through turns 1 and 2.
Macri would not go away without a fight though, and would driver around Dewease on the backstretch to retake the lead.
He did not however, get far enough away from Dewease, as Dewease would slide up in front of Macri yet again through turns 3 and 4 to retake the lead moments before another caution would come out for Alex Attard who slowed to a stop on the frontstretch.
Dewease would hold Macri off on the restart with 8 laps remaining and go on to win the main event worth $20,000 thanks to the increased winner’s share courtesy of Greencastle Livestock Market.
“I was better on the short runs than on the long runs,” said Dewease. “I was going to make him earn it. I got a really good start at him. He left it open enough for me to slide him, and it actually stuck really good for 3 or 4 laps.”
“It’s hard to beat Lance with the experience that he has,” said Macri during his podium interview. “He did a really good job of taking my air away and keeping his speed up. There’s a reason he has so many wins here. I wish I could be that good someday.”
Ryan Smith would round out the top three finishers.
For the Penske Racing Shocks super late models, Andrew Yoder would lead all 25 laps to claim his second super late model win of the season at Port Royal Speedway.
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. 12D-Lance Dewease[1]; 2. 39M-Anthony Macri[3]; 3. 69K-Ryan Smith[6]; 4. 67-Justin Whittall[12]; 5. 48-Danny Dietrich[4]; 6. 20-Brady Bacon[5]; 7. 23-Chase Dietz[15]; 8. 55W-Mike Wagner[14]; 9. 51-Freddie Rahmer[10]; 10. 8E-Brock Zearfoss[7]; 11. 55-Logan Wagner[17]; 12. 77-Michael Walter[19]; 13. 22-Doug Hammaker[20]; 14. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[22]; 15. 95-Garrett Bard[8]; 16. 45-Jeff Halligan[24]; 17. 35-Austin Bishop[2]; 18. 53-Mark Smith[16]; 19. 53A-Alex Attard[18]; 20. 19-Brent Marks[21]; 21. 55M-Domenic Melair[23]; 22. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[11]; 23. 12-Blane Heimbach[13]; 24. 91-Preston Lattomus[9]
